Rhythm%20

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Rhythm language Day 24

• Music Cognition
• MUSC 495.02, NSCI 466, NSCI 710.03
• Harry Howard
• Barbara Jazwinski
• Tulane University

2
Course administration

• Spend provost's money

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Rhythm in language and music
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Rhythm in language

• basketball
• conundrum
• falsification
• man
• chairman
• divide
• division
• cane
• canebreak
• sugarcane

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Syllable length

• English syllables do not all have the same length
• Compare to Spanish
• banana
• banana
• Spanish syllables tend to have the same length

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Timing

• English is said to be stress-timed
• the length of a syllable depends on its stress
• also Dutch, German
• Spanish is said to be syllable-timed
• each syllable has approximately the same length
• also French, Portuguese

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Sensitivity

• Listeners are sensitive to the patterning of
  vowel duration in speech
• i.e. it plays a role in judgments of the
  naturalness of synthetic speech
• non-native speaker accent
• The temporal patterning of vowels is likely to be
  one factor contributing to the rhythmic feel of a
  language

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An experiment

• Create a measure of vowel length (nPVI)
• Take a sample of English and French speakers

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nPVI

• Normalized Pairwise Variability Index
• The different in length between two vocalic
  intervals is measured relative to the averaged
  length of the two intervals
• the measure is relative
• this avoids problem of different rates of
  speaking
• it can be compared to music

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Sample speech

• English
• The local train left the station more than five
  minutes ago.
• The last concert given at the opera was a
  tremendous success.
• The city council has decided to renovate the
  medieval center.
• French
• Les parents se sont approchés de lenfant sans
  faire de bruit.
• Ils ont appris lévènement au journal télévisé de
  huit heures.
• Le ministère de la culture a augmenté le nombre
  de ces subventions.

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Results
12
Composers
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Musical nPVI values

• nPVI values were computed directly from music
  notation
• To compute the nPVI for a given theme, the first
  note was arbitrarily given a duration of 1, and
  the durations of remaining notes were expressed
  as multiples or fractions of the first note.
• An example of a Debussy theme (D122, Quartet in G
  minor for Strings, 1st movement, 2nd theme) and
  an Elgar theme (E72, Symphony No. 1, in A Flat,
  Opus 55, 4th movement, 2nd theme), together with
  the nPVI for each theme.

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Total results
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Average results

• English and French musical themes are different,
  with English music having the greater value (mean
  nPVI 46.91 vs. 40.90).
• This difference is significant (MannWhitney
  U-test, U 9993.5, P lt 0.01).

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Why?

• It is known from studies of language acquisition
  that the perceptual system is sensitive to the
  rhythmic patterns of language from a very early
  age.
• Composers, like other members of their culture,
  internalize these patterns as part of learning to
  speak their native language.
• So
• when composers write music, linguistic rhythms
  are in their ears, and they can consciously or
  unconsciously draw on these patterns in weaving
  the sonic fabric of their music.
• developing composers are influenced by the music
  of their compatriots, which, in turn, is
  influenced by the music these composers hear as
  children, such as popular and folk songs whose
  rhythms bear the imprint of their associated
  linguistic texts.

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Caveat

• Neither explanation suggests that the connection
  between linguistic and musical rhythm is
  obligatory
• Rather, this link is likely to be greater in
  historical epochs where composers seek a national
  character for their music.

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An outlier

• Vincent DIndy
• Investigation of DIndys background suggests a
  reason for this pattern.
• Goldbeck (1965) notes
• DIndy considered French 19th century music
  to be superficial, frivolous and unworthy to
  compete with the teutonic BachBeethovenWagner
  tradition. the serious and uncompromising
  principles of German symphony and of Bayreuth
  should be applied to French music, inspired by
  French legends and true to the spirit of French
  folklore.

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An explanation

• If DIndys admiration of German music played a
  role in his compositional style,
• and German music re?ects the stress-timed German
  language,
• then DIndys high nPVI value is understandable.

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Next Monday

• Party
• I might say something about the evolution of music